In the Spotlight: Eric

It’s been a while since we’ve had any new fan interviews on the blog so it’s about time we rectified that. Say “hola” to Eric, a Tomb Raider fan from the Canary Islands!

Please note that the following interview has been edited and adapted for publication on this blog.

So, tell us a little about yourself.

Well, I’m Eric and I’m 14 years old (almost 15!). I’m from Spain but live in Tenerife in the Canary Islands. I love the English language and want to learn more as my English is not perfect. I’m a guy who loves to draw (many people say that I have a “gift”, so that’s good!), I like to listen to music, hang out with my friends, play video games…

That’s an interesting question. Well, I learnt about the TR series thanks to first TR film. When I was 2 or 3 years old! I fell in love with Lara and the following year, my sister’s boyfriend brought his PS2 to our house and my dad rented a video game for me: Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. God, how many memories I have of that game! When I watched that wonderful intro FMV, I knew that TR was going to be one of my favourite video game sagas! Then my dad rented TR: The Last Revelation, which I found a bit weird with poor graphics and hard controls (I didn’t know back then that it was a PS1 game). And that is how I learned about the TR series! 😉

Do you run a Tomb Raider fansite or blog? If so, what would you say was your biggest achievement to date?

I don’t know if it has changed my life, but I think that it has changed my point of view of everything. I mean, if I’m in a trouble, I try to solve the problem in another way. That is what I learned from TR games. Strange but true! The world is full of unanswered questions, right? Well, I try to answer them from a different point of view

Were you interested in archaeology before discovering Tomb Raider? Have the Tomb Raider games and films inspired you to learn more about ancient history?

If I tell you the truth, nope. But when I discovered TR series I became interested in it. When I was a little child, I wanted to be like Lara. Searching for secret lairs and defeating giant monsters…which is funny because when I found the T-Rex in TR1 for the first time, I jumped from my chair as I was so scared! Hahaha! Now I like to draw Lara visiting different places. And, yes, the TR series inspired me to learn a bit of ancient history out of curiosity.

What are your thoughts on Lara’s image? Is she simply the product of a sexist gaming industry or can she be seen as a positive role model?

I think that when the company created those images of Lara on a beach and similar images, it was just to get people interested in her. I mean, she can be a perfect sexy model, but she wasn’t created for that reason. TR was created for entertaiment, to show us how history and archaeology can be magical. She is not just a typical sexy video game character; she shows us that men are not the only ones capable of epic things.

The creation of Lara Croft was the birth of something really special. Even if the TR series ends one day, Lara will never die if we still believe in her. She has changed a lot of lives so, for me, she isn’t simply the product of a sexist gaming industry. For me, she is one of the best video game characters and like I said before, she wasn’t created for a sexist gaming industry; she was created to stay with us forever.

What’s your favourite Tomb Raider game?

My very first and favourite TR game was Angel of Darkness. I have a lot of memories of this masterpiece! I still remember that first level on the Paris Backstreets. I felt scared because of the creepy music and the darkness. And at that young age, I wasn’t even able to complete the FIRST level! Haha! 8 years later, I bought AoD for my old PS2 and I beat the whole game. Man, it was so freaking hard! I hate that this game has lots of haters. 😦 I think it’s Eido’s fault that we have an unfinished and buggy game! But thanks to the “Skip Level” cheat, I found the deleted tutorial scene. That was a fantastic day! I could talk about this game for HOURS!

Thanks to Tomb Raider Forums’ AoD Beta Diary page, I now know how fantastic this game could have been. 😦 That said, I never hated the controls or the story…though I always hated the Boaz fight! So, for me, this game is my favourite TR game. What I’m saying? It’s the BEST TR game…in my personal opinion. I’m waiting for a remake of this game and the release of the whole cancelled AoD trilogy. The bad thing is that it will never happen.

And your least favourite game?

I never hated any TR game! How I could do that to Lara?! I mean, I love all her games but, for me, the only one that I didn’t like as much as the others was Underworld. It’s a good game but I don’t know. In my opinion, the story wasn’t as good as the other TR games and the controls felt a bit unfair. I don’t know how to explain it but it was hard to control Lara.

I hated that Crystal Dynamics didn’t explain how Natla survived in TRA! Ugh! But, anyway, it was a good game but just not as good as the other games. My score would be: 6.5/10.

Classic, Legend-Anniversary-Underworld or Reboot Lara?

I loved the reboot and the Crystal Dynamics trilogy but I’ll always prefer Core Lara. She’s the original Lara!

Do you have any favourite Tomb Raider moments or quotes?

Of course I have! My favourite one is from TR2: “Don’t you think you’ve seen enough?”. That was an epic ending for an epic game. Oh, and I have some other ones, such as “Just for once it’d be nice to walk into a room and not have the statues try to kill me” (that one is a deleted quote from AoD, you can heard it in the game files).

One of my favourite moments is the T-Rex. Or the Torso Boss! Or the dragon! I don’t know. I think that all the levels of every TR game are my favourite moments. :p

What about least favourite moments? Is there anything you dislike about the games/films/comics?

Well, one of my least favourite moments is the Boaz fight or the Red Ghost from AoD! So hard…

I’ve never read any TR comics, which is lame. And as for the movies, I hated that scene from Cradle of Life where Lara is heading to the “Cradle” and the dark monsters come out of the trees. It was so scary for me as I was just 3 years old at the time, hahaha! I also hate when Terry dies! I always cry in that scene. 😥

If you could change one thing about the Tomb Raider franchise, what would you change?

Obviously, I would change the AoD game. If I could rewind time like Max does in Life is Strange, I would go to the 2003 E3, play the beta game, talk to the Eidos president and tell him “You must allow 6 more months for developing the game. Please don’t rush Core to finish it. And complete the AoD trilogy (and Kurtis spin-off)”.

Which places would you like to see Lara explore in future games?

Cool question, hmm…

It would be nice see Lara in Spain or even the Canary Islands (a perfect place for a secret lair!). It would be so FREAKING COOL!

Finally, if you could join Lara on one of her adventures, where would you go?

Wow! That’s a tough question…because I can’t choose! No, wait…I’m being silly. I would go with her to talk to Werner, escape from the police, go to the Louvre, travel to Prague, meet Kurtis, and kill Karel! That would be the perfect adventure!

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Kelly McGuire is a translator, editor, writer, and gamer with a passion for archaeology, languages, cultural heritage, and wildlife conservation. She tweets under the username @TRHorizons and is the admin and chief content creator for Tomb Raider Horizons.

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